Embassy Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
THIS IS SPINAL TAP, (background l-r): David Kaff, R.J. Parnell, (foreground l-r): Tony Hendra, Harry Shearer, Patrick Macnee, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, 1984.
His best-known roles include starring as the blundering, ill-tempered manager in Rob Reiner s 1984 rock mockumentary.
Tony Hendra, the British satirist and National Lampoon alumnus who played the band manager on This Is Spinal Tap, died Thursday in Yonkers, New York. He was 79.
Hendra’s wife Carla confirmed his death to
The New York Times, citing the cause as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The actor was diagnosed in 2019.